Hello and welcome to the Star Trek discussion thread. Here you'll find fellow Star Trek fans and authors, tips on writing, and more! Feel free to beam right in!

Current Topic of Discussion:

Have you as of yet wrote any Star Trek fan fic? If so, how did you get started? If not, would you like to?

 

I'm not sure when I became a Star Trek fan. Although I'm sure it was in wake of my already exploding Star Wars love.

I was 7 in '77 when Star Wars came out. So, as for Star Trek, I still had no TNG. I must have been searching for any kind of quality SF on TV and discovered, like many others, Star TRek in syndication.

In 1987 when TNG premiered I was very excited and, also, apprehensive. What would it be? Would it live up to TOS? I heard Rodenberry was behind it, so gave me some solice.

Here's the kicker. I've never written a ST story...ever. I'm looking forward to your first challenge to give it a go. I think what scares me about writing ST is looking foolish. Techno-babble is way out of my comfort zone. However, I'm silly enough to think ST is only about science. I look forward to exploring characters and situations.

For me, one the most intriguing things Picard ever did was show emotion. Whether he was angry (The First Duty), bearing Sarek's emotional breakdown (Sarek), or declaring his love for Lwaxana Troi (Menage A' Troi), Picard's emotional side has always been compelling for me. Perhaps that could be a challenge.

Thanks for this thread. I look forward to entering a new fan fiction fandom.

 

I got into Star Trek by watching The Next Generation when that came to TV. I thought that it started slow and then built up as each season progressed and then went down a little at the end. I definitely like Captain Picard, Riker was pretty good, Data was an interesting character, and Worf was great as well. Dr. Crusher was okay, Wesley was.... well Wesley. Geordi I thought was a really good character that once he became the Engineering Chief was really good.

I also watched reruns of The Original Series. Even though it is particularly campy in most episodes, a few stand out and I really like the characters on this show. Kirk will always be well... Kirk. Spock is probably the best Vulcan of any of the series. McCoy is also the best doctor hands down. Scotty, I really liked as the Engineer Chief. He and Geordi were about equally great. Sulu and Chekov were used sparingly as well as Uhura.

Then, the top show for me was Deep Space Nine. It also started slow, but then once the Dominion War arc started it really was outstanding. Once they got the Defiant to blast away the Jem'Hadar the stories got more exciting. Sisko was the first Commander who later became Captain so that was a different part to the story. I didn't really like Bashir as the Doctor, I thought he was okay later on as the series progressed though. Odo was a very interesting character that had some interesting stories as well. Kira was a strong female presence that also told the Bajoran story pretty well. Jadzia Dax was also another strong female character (even though her host had been both male and female before). An then Worf, once he came aboard made the show better as well. I thought that O'Brien was an interesting character, the first main Enlisted person instead of the Officers. This series also had the best secondary characters in Quark, Rom, Garek, Gul Dukat, and Vic Fontaine plus others.

Voyager I watched here and there, thought it was okay for the most part but not great. Seven was a much needed improvement over lackluster Kes. Janeway was probably the best character on the show besides the EMH. The EMH was a very unique Doctor and I liked his improvement as the series progressed. Chakotay I thought wasn't used too well. The same for Paris and Torres. Kes, like I said was useless. Seven was used mainly for her sexy fit in her suit. Neelix was hardly used as whatever his function was.

Enterprise I also watched here and there, again it started haphazardly due to continued disregard for continuity. I really did not like it that much. A few episodes were okay, but again, by that time (I think season three or four) it was too late.
Archer was an okay Captain. T'Pau just used for her sexy fit in her suit as well. Reed not used hardly at all until late in the series. Trip was okay as the humor guy. Phlox as the Doctor was again hardly used.

 

I can't remember exactly when i got into Star Trek I used to watch TNG when I was about ten and watched that and voyager mainly.

The original wasn't to bad but not a favourite of mine neither is DS9.

I've always been a sci-fi fan since I as young, that's what drew me to SW and ST. In Star Trek TNG and Voyager the multilayered characters are brilliant and the storylines get better.

I have recently started watching TNG when I have the chance, Voyager more sporadically.

I think one of the things I like most about ST is when I watch it, how mankind has evolved to live without feeling the need for material possessions, the expansion of the mind is there foremost goal and with warpdrive (if we can create something like that in RL) to explore space - I hope that is the next evolution (if you will) of our species, to put all the rubbish we see on our streets today behind us and move forwad as a planet and seek a deeper knowledge and undestanding of things as a whole.

 

Thanks for your responses.

I got into Trek through DS9 and VGR, watching both in their full. I then rewinded the clock and and watched TNG, which although good and even amazing at times, couldn't usneat the prior two as ties for my fav series.

I am ashamed to say I haven't watched more than 5 episodes of TOS.

ENT....ugh!

 

I have been watching Star Trek as long as I could find a way to not let my mother know I was. At that point my parents didn't like the violence. Go figure.


At times I wondered if each new set of writers and directors "got it", and found it interesting that most of the time they would come around.


There are many great characters to be writing.

 

^Exactly. There is arich assortment of characters that make Star Trek what it is.

So...next topic of discussion:

Who is your favorite character, and why?

 

There are too many characters from all the various Treks. I couldn't possibly pick just one. I couldn't even pick three.

 

Tjere are so many good characters, worf, data, paris, pretty much all the bridge crews for TNG and Voyager.

Heres one, who's your favourite captain? I'd have either Jane Way or Piccard but it's a hard choice.

 

Favorite character? Berlinghoff Rasmussen. Why? Because I can relate to being sentenced to permanent exile from my own time over some petty offense.

EDIT: To go to the earlier question (which I'm guessing at from the responses), I started with the ubiquitous TOS reruns and less-common TAS reruns. I watched all the modern-era series as they initially aired, except the last season of VOY, when the local UPN affiliate went off-air in the fall and we didn't get another until the next summer.

EDIT II: I can't tell if you asked about fanfic or not, so I'll give a general answer. I wrote a fair amount of Trek fanfic for alt.startrek.creative (mostly drabbles, of course), for every one of the TV series, plus SCE and some general (MIS) stuff.

 

I must have forgotten to mention my DS9 love. It is the only series for which I own all seven seasons. I am a big Ben Sisko fan and liked him even more after the goat and shaved head. Hawk was in the house! Those of you that recall Spenser: For Hire will get the reference.

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority, but I enjoyed having Worf come over in Season 4. I think he added a lot to the show despite his romance with Dax.

So, as for my favorite character, Ben Sisko is number one, with Will Riker and Jean Luc Picard coming a close second and third. I'll explain those two later.

 

I've been watching Star Trek since I can remember. My father got me started on the old Trek films. I also remember watching Trek reruns on weekends while growing up. I got watching TNG when I was in high school, followed by the other spin-offs. I'd say out of all of them my main favorite character was William Riker. He had a good mix of Kirk but a less dare devil style. I believe that's why I like him above all other's. He'd be followed by Kirk, and Picard.

 

Just to chime in, my favorite character was and still is The Doctor. He is one of the most original and multi-faceted characters in Trek. Although the wirters bumbled on some of Voyager, they clearly worked hard to flesh out the Doctor and make him such a strong character. I loved his biting sarcasm, his ethical strenght, and his journey to beomce a unique lifeform.

 

Oksy, time for a new topic:

What series was the strongest? The weakest?

 

I think that DS9 was definitely the strongest and best written series. It's dark which I like tremendously and it deals with some very interesting characters and subjects. Like almost all of the Star Trek series, it did not become great until later on when the Defiant was added plus the Dominion arc which is the best one ever in a series (yes better than the Borg, because the Borg were eventually watered down due to over-usage).

The weakest has to be Enterprise without a doubt. To much was wasted trying to set up a weird (and entirely pathetic) enemy in the expanse. The ship was a re-imagined Akira class and looked too futuristic. The series disregarded cannon too frequently and introduced TNG races before they should have.

 

Agreed.

 

The Strongest, IMHo, was DS9, closely followed by VGR. ENT was by far the weakest.

 

I never really got into Star Trek, but I saw a few episodes here and there of the original, which I loved for all its ridiculous special effects. TNG I enjoyed as well, the little I saw of it (except for Riker, couldn't stand him). And for some reason I subjected myself to random Enterprise episodes - ouch. I really liked Reed, but the rest of the series was flat.

 

Thanks for your responses. Now for our next topic.

Have you as of yet wrote any Star Trek fan fic? If so, how did you get started? If not, would you like to?

 

I never have, but yes I would. Not that I have any clear idea of what I would write.

 

Well, I already answered the first part of that question, and pretty nearly answered the second. I got into it because it had a Usenet group, which meant that I had somewhere to post fic. Surprisingly, I didn't expand into Trek until sometime after I'd made attempts to expand into Quantum Leap and X-Files fic.

EDIT: No, wait, that's not quite the first thing. In the early '90s, I was writing some shared-universe stuff, not really fanfic, per se, though some installments were crossovers with other properties. One of the series I wrote was set in space and included a crossover (in August, 1994) with two Ferengi characters from a TNG episode. [At the time, I wanted to see them get a spin-off. Unfortunately, my hopes were later dashed when the ever-so-slightly-too-similar Voyager came out; it even had the characters on at one point, portraying them as nothing more than typical bumbling Ferengi and slamming the final nail in the idea's coffin before talking the widow into having its corpse cremated.]

 

I've written fan-fiction about Star Trek before the ones on TFN and way before I ever wrote any Star Wars ones. I tend to like writing parodies mainly (because of the technobabble) even though I've written more normal stuff as well.

 

I have never wrote Trek fanfics before, although I'd like to, it'd be finding all the information (even small things) yu'd need, technical things ie how a phase modulator works etc.

 

Hello!

Have you as of yet wrote any Star Trek fan fic? If so, how did you get started? If not, would you like to?

It's funny, my first introduction to fanfic was when my family first go dial-up internet, and my siblings and I would laugh our butts off at all the Kirk/Spock slash... Then I found some more, um, conventional fanfic and read a lot for a few years, but I didn't think to write any. I sure had a lot of plot lines going around in my own head, though. I haven't written any yet, but I probably will very soon.

Who is your favorite character, and why?

That's a tough one! Spock is certainly up there. I always thought Vulcans were very interesting. Picard was great, mostly I think because Patrick Stewart was such a great actor. I liked Data before he got his emotion chip. DS9 was great for all its minor characters (Gul Dukat was awesome, and Garrek[sp? sorry it's been awhile] was great, and Quark's mom the Ferengi feminist)... I can't choose, darn it!

What series was the strongest? The weakest?

I grew up on TNG, and I have seen every episode at least three times. TOS is the most fun for me to watch these days, though, because of the awesome old school special effects, William Effing Shatner, among other things. DS9 has the best variety of characters, best plot lines, and from what I recall, the best special effects.

I thought Voyager had potential, but it just wasn't working for me. I never did manage to get into Enterprise.

 

I would love to jump into the world of Star Fan fiction, but I don't know where to start. I have alaways enjoyed challenges on the SW side. Just to get the creative juices flowing, if you know what I mean?

I think a very basic challenge is order, LordNyax113. . Have the mods lifted any restrictions that mayt have been in place?